Tuesday, April 5, 2016

PLOT: (must use this in your essay!):protagonist: HB (wants to be the best he can be) can he overcome hubris to become all he can beantagonist: Diana Moonglampers (wants everyone equal in ability so she has control)setting: U.S. (whoa so ironic man), 2081 (warning that this will happen in the future if we confuse equal opportunity with equal ability), April (cruelest month, not yet summer, hopeful, rejuvenating but not fast enough. Symbolic of our competitive nature because April is when nature emerges)exposition: everyone is equal (213 amendments), men have taken Harrison awayrising complications: handicaps, jail, HB’s parents don’t share his goals, Moonglampers and other handicappers, society doesn’t want freedom/ the crab bucket mentality climax (when the internal conflict is resolved): when HB smashes musicians, says “I’m the greatest”external conflict resolution: they deadfalling complications: nada (ironically)denouement: everything after they hit the floor.

SYMBOLISM: denotative, connotative, archetypal, universal, personal Harrison: individuality, freedom, self-surpassingHarrison’s height: literally above society, sees over crab-bucket. Stands out. 7ft=not average, but can’t be changed by handicap, tied to Procrustes, Moonglampers can’t control his height, have to be a big individual in order to overcome the conformity of societyHarrison’s age: 14 y.o. is youth, idealism, growth spurts, surpassing previous generation, learning how far we can go, breaking free/gaining independence from parents, about the time we start thinking for ourselvesMoonglampers: society, control, powerU.S.: freedom2081: warning of dystopiaApril: human nature213 Amendments: impossible to make people equalBallerina: she apologizes, pulls herself down, and makes her voice monotone/“uncompetitive” Uncompetitive/equality=society not progressingBeer/TV: bringing self down, forgetting sad things. Society would rather distract ourselves rather than raising ourselves up, TV isn’t reality, self-chosen handicaps, ignorance is bliss, “It’s just a part of me now”Handicaps: crab-bucket mentality. We are social beings, don’t want to stand out. Ironic because they cannot make people equal (beautiful people have uglier masks, Hazel jealous of George’s handicap, etc.) actually accentuating differencesTen-gauge double-barrel shotgun: George: Hazel: thinks she would be a good handicapper general, she is considered “average”, society’s ideal. But she’s NOT average. She’s super stupid! Both she and Moonglampers would kill HB. Conformity: “I always do”. Hazel trying to control HB like MoonglampersWhy is she crying at beginning and end of the story?

CONCLUSION: Critical analysis: Is competition always a good thing? Should we balance our competitive nature? Feeling analysis: After Harrison is shot, analyze what happens to make us feel the theme Compare to Procrustes and the Theseus men Procrustes= 6 feet tall, Harrison is 7 feet tall bones are scattered the authority: innkeeper and Diana Moonglampers Compare to Icarus and Daedalus

Irony: most important. Irony should be final paragraph OR don’t have separate paragraph for irony and examine all the lit. devices with ironic lens Satire: ridiculing some aspect of society/human behavior with intent to improve it(human behavior: ridiculing conformity and to not have hubris when striving for excellence, social aspect: do not bring people down, raise them up)uses: understatement, overstatement, irony (situational and dramatic)) Overstatement: ex: have 213 amendments. So many and we’re still not equal! Dramatic irony (in prose): When author has character say/do something that is opposite of author’s beliefs ex: p119 “perfectly average intelligence” when in fact stupid is the average (Vonnegut dislikes conformity, lack of competition) ex: p121 “back to the dark ages, with everyone competing (...) you wouldn’t like that.” (ironic because Vonnegut would like competition- we know this with the quotation: p 121 “[the ballerina’s voice] absolutely uncompetitive” Situational irony: when what happens is the opposite of what one would expect ex: setting is U.S., land of freedom and competition, when no one is really free. How could handicapper general get into power if we are a democracy? We chose this/allowed it to happen to us. ex: have 213 amendments: you can never eradicate competition because it is natural, it’s our human nature, it allows us to self-surpass and progress as a society ex: p124 George gets beer while son is dying ex: Beautiful people wear hideous masks. ex: Announcer apologizes for beautiful voice (121), makes voice “uncompetitive” ex: they forget son’s death ex: Hazel resembles Diana/she says she’d make a good handicapper general, probably would have killed Harrison herself ex: Harrison’s hubris brought his demise ex: George and Hazel bring themselves down (someone had to elect Diana as the handicap general) Why? They don’t want the responsibility Utopia: nowhere, ideal world, perfection does not exist Dystopia: failed utopia

Handicaps actually accentuate the beauty/intelligence/ability of peopleWife jealous of husband for hearing noises

Character Paragraph pre-write: (can also add mood, tone, and atmosphere into this paragraph)Vonnegut uses character to convey theme of ____ by ironically having society kill the one person who was a positive example of this theme.Transitional phrase (for example, firstly, for instance, etc).Examples, quotations, explanationsWhat changes: Harrison diesWhat makes it change: Moonglampers shoots himIn what way does it change: avoiding hubris could have saved him “I am a greater ruler than any man who ever lived” “blah blah emperor blah de blah” “‘Music!’ he commanded”Why Vonnegut has it change this way (clincher sentence!): Shows us the theme and we need to avoid having hubris as we avoid having conformity

OR you could use Homeric Hero analysis (or both if you’re feeling fancy):Vonnegut uses character to convey theme of ____ by having Harrison be a Homeric hero whose downfall comes from having excessive pride.Arete: ex: “watch me become what I can become” shows he wants to be a self-surpassing individualHubris: ex: p123 “greatest emperor”Ate: ex: snatching, waving, slamming people in their chairs. ex: Harrison and empress defy gravity (literally defying the laws of nature). ex: “obvious desire to kiss the ceiling,” striving for something beyond human abilitiesNemesis: died, failed society. Hubris got in the way of achieving goal

Foil:George brings himself down to with beer and TV because it’s “part of me” (120). Entire society=foil because they don’t want to change.

PLOT:protagonist: HB (wants to be the best he can be)
can he overcome hubris to become all he can beantagonist: Diana Moonglampers (wants everyone equal in ability so she has control)setting: U.S. (whoa so ironic man), 2081 (warning us that this will happen in the future if we confuse equal opportunity with equal ability), April (cruelest month, not yet summer, hopeful, rejuvenating but not fast enough. Symbolic of our competitive nature because April is when nature emerges)exposition: everyone is equal

THEME STATEMENTS:Equal opportunity is a higher form of equality that equal abilityTrying to make everyone a winner means no one’s a winnerDiscontinue competition for promise of equalityDon’t let the man get you down

Welcome to Stewart's English!

This blog is updated daily with all homework assignments and digital copies of handouts, as well as some notes from both Honors 9 and Euro Lit.

Posts are organized on the homepage chronologically, or you can navigate directly to a certain day or subject matter with the links below. To enlarge and print any handout, simply click on the picture of it and print as you would any other document.

If you need to talk to me in school, please set up an appointment or see me after school on Wednesdays. If you need to contact me outside of school, my email address is stewart_z@4j.lane.edu.